(Bethanye's running a half marathon with Team In Training in September and is making non-slip headbands, customized to the size of your noggin, to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Right now, she's 46% of her way to her $2500 goal!)

Monday, June 27, 2011

AND the training plan I'll be using to prepare for my 5th half marathon.

1. In my previous training plan research, I came across some stuff by Jeff Galloway, including running a "magic mile" and then calculating realistic race time goals off of this mile time. Under the heading of "Improvement Possibilities," he writes:

It is fine to choose a time goal for the goal race which is faster than predicted by the Magic Mile. As they do the speed training, the long runs and the Magic Miles, they should improve. For prediction purposes, as they take this "leap " to a goal, we suggest no more than a 3-5% improvement in a 3 month training program.

Note: After typing this whole thing up, I understand that I did not calculate the 3-5% improvement on the predicted half marathon time based on a Magic Mile -- but instead on my most recent half time. I'm just rollin' with that.

2. At Runner's World Smart Coach (used for my first 2 half marathons), you enter a recent time and plug in a bunch of details for your training plan and they tell you a time goal. Here's what Smart Coach said:
Recent Half Marathon Time: 2:15:32
Initial Weekly Distance: 16-21 miles
Training Intensity: Moderate
Training Program Length: 13 weeks
Goal Time: 2:10:08
(Involves 2 easy runs, an alternating speedwork/tempo run, and long run each week)

Changing the above plan to Hard Training Intensity, that Goal race time becomes 2:07:55.
(Involves 2-3 easy runs, an alternating speedwork/tempo run, and a long run each week)

Anyway, I think I decided to shoot for a time goal of 2:08-2:09. That will be 6-7 minutes off my May half marathon time of 2:15:32, and 10-11 minutes off my April half marathon time of 2:18:55.

Here's the plan I decided on for a September Half:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednes.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

miles ran

6/20-26

2mi

+arms

2mi

1E/2F/1E

+core

bike

8 mi

Rest

5.5mi hike

17

6/27-7/3

1E/2T/1E

+arms

5 mi PRO

bike

+core

10 mi

mid 2P

away

away

core

20

7/4-10

10k? or

11 mi

bike

+arms

1E/4T/1E

+core

1E/3H/1E

away

away

core

17 or 22

7/11-17

12 mi

mid 4P

arms

1E/4F/1E

bike

+core

1E/3T/1E

away

away

23

7/18-24

3-5E

bike

+arms

core

1E/2F/1E

10 mi

17-19

7/25-31

1E/3T/1E

+arms

away

away

6 PRO

bike

+core

13 mi

24

8/1-7

1E/5T/1E

bike

+arms

core

1E/5H/1E

14 mi

mid 4P

28

8/8-14

1E/4T/1E

bike

+arms

core

1E/3F/1E

13 mi

24

8/15-21

3-5E

bike

+arms

core

5mi PRO

10 mi

17-20

8/22-28

bike

+arms

1E/4T/1E

core

1E/5H/1E

15 mi

mid 5P

23

8/29-9/4

bike

+arms

1E/5T/1E

core

1E/4F/1E

12 mi

25

9/5-9/11

1E/5T/1E

1E/3H/1E

core

10 mi

mid 4P

away

away

away

22

9/12-9/17

8 mi

arms

1E/3F/1E

core

1E/2P/1E

--REST--

! HALF !

17

The plan is based off of a 3 day/week running plan from Women's Running (January/February 2011) shared with me by Heather.

(I would like to add that I just realized Heather was spot on in her suggestion of how much I should try to improve my time by in the 6ish weeks between my April and May half marathons....she said shave :15 seconds off my April pace, which would have meant a 2:15:35 half marathon in May...I ran a 2:15:32 half).